Ospreys team to play the Scarlets

Natoga, Jarvis, Evans and Tipuric come in for Friday night's Domino's Derby at the Liberty Stadium

The Ospreys team to play the Scarlets at Liberty Stadium on Friday 3rd January, KO 7.15pm, is as follows:

15 Sam Davies

14 Aisea Natoga

13 Ben John

12 Ashley Beck

11 Jeff Hassler

10 Dan Biggar

9 Rhys Webb

1 Duncan Jones

2 Richard Hibbard

3 Aaron Javis

4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)

5 Ian Evans

6 Justin Tipuric

7 Sam Lewis

8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Scott Baldwin

17 Ryan Bevington

18 Adam Jones

19 James King

20 Morgan Allen

21 Tyler Ardron

22 Tom Habberfield

23 Richard Fussell

Duncan Jones will make his 200th appearance for the Ospreys, the first player ever to reach that landmark figure

Head Coach Steve Tandy said:

“While we got the win at Parc y Scarlets last week, in many ways it was a frustrating afternoon. The spirit, effort and commitment from the team was faultless, but we made too many basic errors, coughed up possession cheaply and that meant we found ourselves under pressure.

“The message this week is about raising that performance level so that it meets the standard we expect as Ospreys. We’ve got some big games over the next few weeks, with the Heineken Cup looming after Scarlets on Friday, and we know that we need to be performing at our very best if we are going to achieve what we want in these games.

“Friday night will be a special occasion with a big crowd there to see in 2014 and it’s important that we start the year as we mean to continue. After that it’s Northampton at home, and results in the last round of European fixtures mean that we can still have a big say in what happens in the pool so we know that we have to perform in such a way on Friday that makes supporters want to come back to support the cause the following weekend.”